In the first-century world, the gospel was a message not readily accepted by either Jews or Gentiles. Paul writes, “Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:21-22).
In his book 30 Years that Changed the World, Michael Green identifies “bridges and ditches” that the Jewish and Greek cultures brought to the spread of the gospel. The Roman Road system, Jewish monotheism, and the Greek translation of the Old Testament are “bridges” that enhanced the spread of the gospel message.
However, ” ditches ” also served as obstacles to the spread of the gospel. A major “ditch” to both Jews and Greeks was the concept of the Trinity: God being both singular and plural. For Jesus to claim he was a new kingdom Messiah rather than a political deliverer was hard enough. But his claim to be equal with God was a bridge too far for the Jews and others as well.
The Gentile Roman polytheistic culture found it challenging to accept the claim that there was just one God (monotheism versus polytheism), but at the same time, they were told that this one God is also plural: one God, yet three persons. It is no wonder that the trinitarian view of God took several centuries to hammer out.
One reason God’s nature as a singular plural is complex to comprehend is that nothing in our natural world exactly compares. We can illustrate the idea of the Trinity with water, which exists in three different forms: gas, liquid, and solid, but all our illustrations fall far short of the reality of God as one yet three.
The initial and most difficult step to accepting God’s plurality was the incarnation of Jesus. The claim that Jesus was God and man without compromising either has been denied, doubted, debated, and fought over since the first century. The debate creates heretics and reformers. Yet, the incarnation is the essential starting point for any discussion regarding who Jesus claimed to be. It is one of two issues that separate authentic from counterfeit Christianity. (The other issue is whether God’s offer of salvation is based on our merit or the work of Christ alone.)
The Arian controversy and the Creed of Nicaea
In the fourth century, Arius, a priest from Alexandria in Egypt, argued that Jesus was created by God the Father and, therefore, was neither of the same substance as God nor coeternal with him. Arianism, as it was called, created a major rift in the church. It was one of many deviant views of Christ’s nature floating as truth in the first three centuries, causing conflict and confusion.
In 325, Emperor Constantine convened a religious council in the city of Nicaea to bring unity to Christianity and clarity to the Trinity. Out of that convention came the Nicene Creed, which is still a standard of belief for most Christian churches today. Our Apostles Creed is a shortened version of the Nicene Creed.
In this redacted version of the Nicene Creed, notice how they struggled to explain Jesus as God and man.
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him, all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man…….
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
The result of this Counsel and the ones that followed was to establish the essential beliefs about the Trinity, especially about Jesus. Church leaders formed a similar creed in the 6th century AD called the Athanasian Creed. It differs from other Christian creeds in that it especially emphasizes the trinitarian doctrine of the divine nature of Christ. Historically, baptism required the affirmation of the truths of these Creeds.
For the past 18 centuries, since the Council of Nicaea, mainstream Catholicism and eventually Protestantism agreed on the truth of the Trinity, specifically the divinity of Christ as expressed in these creeds. We expect the divinity of Jesus as God the Son to be rejected by religions like Islam and counterfeit Christian religions like Jehovah’s Witness and Mormonism. However, what is concerning today is the growing rejection of Christ’s divinity, even within the evangelical church.
A recent study by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research 1 identified several trends in the beliefs of “evangelicals” that suggest the historic understanding of the nature of Christ (and the Trinity) is no longer a given. The survey classified an “evangelical” as one who claimed belief that:
• “It was important to trust Jesus as their savior;”
• “that his death removed the penalty of sin and”
• “that trust in him alone brings salvation.”
However, among this group of “evangelicals,” the survey found that:
1. 73% believe that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”
2. 43% affirmed the belief that “Jesus was a good teacher, but was not God.”
If these statistics are close to being accurate, we are condoning, even baptizing, people who hold an Arian view of Jesus. To guard the gospel in our generation, we need to examine Jesus’ claim as the second person of the Trinity: equal to and the same as God (John 1:1-2).
After the disciples had been with Jesus for a time, he gave them a mid-term exam. The first question was, “Who do the crowds say I am?” The second was more personal, critical, and revealing, “Who do you say I am?” If we get this second question wrong, we get the gospel wrong.
To help get it right, we need to clarify two terms: “Son of God” and “begotten.” We will investigate these two terms in our next blog.
1 The State of Theology survey, released in 2022 by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research